The battle's done, and we kind of won, so we sound our victory cheer: where do we go from here?
... a blog by Marc Lynch

December 31, 2008

"Gaza" or "Hamas"

The other day I pointed out the Arab political divisions over the response to Gaza. It might be interesting to show how this plays out in one of the key interpretive struggles in the Arab public sphere (and not only Arab, of course): whether to define the current Israeli attack as against "Gaza" or "Hamas." The stakes are clear. If the attack is defined as against "Gaza", then what follows is solidarity with the Palestinians and demands to stop the killing. If the attack is defined as against "Hamas", then what follows is the division of Arab opinion along sharply polarized lines defined by their views towards the Islamist movement. Who's winning? Thus far, "Gaza" in a landslide... but just as in the 2006 Hezbollah war, the 2008 Iraqi Basra campaign, and all other such battles the interpretive struggle will continue long beyond the hostilities.

The "Hamas" frame is being pushed by Israel, the United States, the Egyptian government, Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, parts of the Saudi media and generally the familiar quarters of the "official Arab order". While they can't ignore the destruction in Gaza, their focus is primarily on Hamas's "irresponsibility"
for breaking the cease-fire, and on its alleged alliances with a variety of enemies of this official order: Iran, Hezbollah, the
Muslim Brotherhood. For example, here's the lead story on the crisis on the Saudi al-Arabiya right now, showcasing Hamas missiles, not suffering Gazans:

The competing frame focuses on the mass human suffering at the hands of Israeli military assault and the inaction on the part of Arab governments. Thus far, the "Hamas" frame has been absolutely swamped by the "Gaza" frame. The visuals in the Arab media show endless pain, sufffering, and trauma for Gazans of all stripes. Al-Jazeera has taken the lead in pushing the images and the frame, but it is far more pervasive than that -- and extends far, far beyond the "pro-Iran" or "Islamist" forces to which the first camp prefers to assign it. Almost every newspaper features front page images of devastation in Gaza, imagery which overwhelms the carefully calculated political arguments of the official Arab camp. The language of choice throughout the media is "massacre", "slaughter", "assault". Here are just a few examples from today's editions of Jordan's semi-official al-Rai, Lebanon's al-Safir, and the Saudi pan-Arab al-Hayat:

It remains to be seen how much this matters, of course, and skepticism runs deep. Anyone who lived through the fierce protests during the second Intifada in 2000, the Israeli re-occupation of the West Bank in 2002, or the invasion of Iraq in 2003 will remember well the rising force of popular protest at those moments, the expectations of dramatic change, the perception of regimes on the brink, the empowered public opinion, the satellite television arguments, the declarations of the final collapse of the Arab official order. And here we still are.

I do think that public opinion matters, at least indirectly in terms of shaping the terms of Arab politics, even if governments don't fall, treaties aren't broken or war declared. A whole industry of 'public diplomacy' and 'wars of ideas' is based on the concern that anti-American attitudes matter, for instance. Here, the anti-Hamas camp has already been forced to bow to this frame rhetorically, with the Mubarak demanding Israel immediately end
its "monstrous" assault, and the GCC calling for an immediate end to
the violence. The limits of their concessions can be seen in the fact that they continue to blame Hamas for the crisis, though, and
refuse to do anything substantive in response (calling for an Arab
summitt to eventually be held, or photo opportunities of blood
donations don't really count). Their media are trying to portray those
governments as acting effectively, but that doesn't seem to be getting
much traction with a deeply skeptical and outraged public. If the crisis grinds on, we'll see whether these regimes are forced to start making more concessions to public views --- but most of the real impact will only be felt long-term.

Comments

I get real tired of this “XXX cannot be destroyed” bit. Of course XXX can, but it requires the sufficient and correct application of force to do so. The Union defeated the Confederacy’s will to fight not by defeating its armies but by cutting its soft underbelly, making it clear that it didn’t need to defeat armies to destroy the slave-system. The Germans' will to fight was sapped by two disastrous wars, lost territory, and a forty-year division of the nation.

And before, or even as, the Confederacy and Nazism fell its propagandists were making noise about how they could “never be defeated”. Wars aren't decisively won by PR.

In my opinion, there is no way that Israel could be so successful at air strikes unless it had inside information from the Arabs of Gaza themselves. Many of them detest the Jewish State, but they despise Hamas as an oppressor, and have made their alliances accordingly. Halting the offensive now would be a kind of betrayal of the hopes of these Arabs. If they can have the opportunity to arm and organize themselves in the wake of the Israeli offensive, what kind of chance does Hamas have of survival?

why no focus on what US foreign policy should be here? Especially with the incoming Obama administration. You were all gaga about what Obama should do on uncontroversial topics such as Iraq, so why do you totally ignore this one? If he is such a visionary as you claim then what is his plan going to be here?

Solomon2 wrote: " Halting the offensive now would be a kind of betrayal of the hopes of these Arabs".

So, there you have the 'wisdom of Solomon'. All the deprivation, terror, murder, and such, that the all in Gaza, whatever their respective political position must be experiencing, for themselves, and their families, must go on so Israel does not betray Arabs in Gaza.

Delusional, utterly delusional. How can we give Israel a dime, one dime, of our money is beyond me.

jonst, when Hamas took over the Gaza they threw some of their Fatah opponents off rooftops; others had their legs cut off. Is it so difficult to imagine that ordinary Gazans hate Hamas much as ordinary Iraqis hated Al-Qaeda? We can all see how Iraq has turned out, once Iraqis decided to team with Americans to root out their terrorists. So why isn't it possible that Gaza could have a similar bright future?

Regardless of "who" started the current slaughter of the Gazan people, it has been within Israel's power for the past 60 years to do the right thing and abide by international resolutions and give Palestinians their land back, and assist in the establishment of a viable state alongside them.

Thus Israel's intentions are clear - they do not want peace, do not want to make the necessary reparations and concessions to enable this. They want all the land and their actions should be seen in this light.

Yes, Solomon, we all see how "things turned out in Iraq". I think it safe to argue Solomon, that the people of Gaza hated the Israeli govt (I am being most optimistic here Solomon, in limiting the hatred to to the govt)BEFORE this latest episode began. And I think it safe to say they will hate with even more passion now.

Al-Jazeera's logo for covering the war is "Gaza taht al-nar" so I think that's pretty clear. You might want to write more about the actual coverage. I thought the interview with Farouk Qaddoumi where the Jazeera interviewer more or less kept rolling his eyes as Qaddoumi repeated the old 60s cliches revealing. I've also found the actual coverage by their reporters on the ground riveting. A half hour interview with the General Secretary of the Islamic Jihad Movement was revealing in a different way. Perhaps you have more to say about the tv coverage. I'd love to read it. Also are you following the coverage in Al-Misri al-Yawm?

YES Israel broke the cease fire...so why is abu aardvark allowing this lie to appear in his post? All he sdoing is perpetuating it.
http://palestinevideo.blogspot.com/2009/01/cnn-israel-broke-gaza-cease-fire.html